Major CSB/SJU donor tied to corporate thievery
By John Buethe
On Sept. 26, court papers were released that named Petters Group CEO, Tom Petters, as a primary suspect in a $100 million fraud investigation of the group, which has holdings in Sun Country Airlines and the Kodak camera company.
Petters and his father, John Petters, are well-known around the CSB/SJU community. In Oct., 2007, the younger Petters donated $5.3 million to CSB towards the establishment of The Tom Petters Center for Global Education. At the time, CSB President MaryAnne Baenininger praised Petters for his philanthropy.
“Tom Petters has a gift for bringing people together.
“Whether supporting our award-winning performing arts center, offering scholarships to students passionate about international business, or giving our interns challenging and engaging work around the world,” Baenninger said, ”Tom has had a profound impact in the lives of our students, their families, faculty and staff, and our global community.”
The Petter’s Auditorium at CSB is named after the family and its estate for their financial support in its construction.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune has been covering the allegations extensively. The following is an excerpt from a story they released on Sept. 27:
The most recent issue of the glossy Petters Group magazine featured chief executive Tom Petters on the cover showing off a new Polaroid digital printer. Inside the magazine, Petters talks about the importance of education and giving, and about the charitable works of the John T. Petters Foundation, named after his late son.
But the accompanying pictures of smiling employees, grant recipients and foundation guests at a Florida polo outing masked a looming crisis facing the self-made millionaire.
In court documents unsealed late Friday, federal agents painted a starkly different portrait of the St. Cloud native and chairman of Sun Country Airlines, among other high-profile companies. In a search warrant filed in federal court in St. Paul, the FBI describes Petters as the key figure in a high-stakes fraud scheme that began in the mid-1990s and continues unabated. Read the full article here.
Expect a full report of the incident in the Oct. 10 issue of The Record.
